Chapter 14: Assembly Configurations and Display States
Using Display States with drawings
Display States can be shown on drawings. If you only show or hide parts in Display States, you will
escape most of the problems. For Display States that change the display mode (wireframe, shaded,
and so on) to work properly, you have to set the view itself to Shaded, then select the display state
from the PropertyManager for the view. The big catch here is that you have to change the Display
State of the parent view; changing the Display State of a projected view does nothing, even though
the controls are available. Projected views cannot have a Display State that is independent from the
parent view. Drawing views are discussed in depth in Chapter 21.Using part Display States in assemblies
Starting in SolidWorks 2010, parts can have Display States, including separate bodies within parts.
You can control the part Display State for specific instances of a part within an assembly in the
Component Properties dialog. Using part Display States has the same advantages that using assem-
bly Display States has (mainly display speed), especially when compared against configurations.Understanding Assembly Configurations
Assembly configurations are used for many different purposes, including assembly performance,
simplified assemblies, variations of assemblies, assemblies in different positions or states, and many
others. Like part configurations, assembly configs also have a few best practice type suggestions.
Configuration settings for assemblies control how the assembly appears in a Bill of Materials
(BOM), and what happens to parts, features, or mates that are added to other configurations, and
so on. All these are discussed in this section.Configurations for performance
One of the best tools to make large assemblies easier to work with is assembly configurations. You
can use several techniques to improve the speed of working with assemblies. Although this infor-
mation is presented in a list of techniques, it is important to select a method that fits the situation.
Each method has strengths and weaknesses.Suppressing components and features
The most obvious use of configurations for improving assembly speed is to have a configuration or
several configurations with suppressed components. Suppressed components are not loaded or
displayed, so memory and video power are conserved.Tip
Remember that you can use a folder for parts and suppress the folder. If you are just using configurations to
hide parts, consider using Display States, given they are more efficient for that purpose. Also remember that
SpeedPak, discussed in Chapter 12, is a subset of configurations. SpeedPak is a simplified representation,
enabling you to select faces and bodies to represent the entire subassembly for performance reasons. n